Blog Archives
sYe Olyde School: Donald Featherstone’s War Games through the Ages Series -Update
Wednesday , 25, November 2015 Wargames 4 CommentsI received my copy of War Games through the Ages Vol. 4 the day after the review was posted and would like to complete it here. I was not disappointed with this volume and glad the set is finally complete. Along with the lonewarriorswa.com review I also found the Diminishing Role of Cavalry chapter to […]
“Bull Run, while comparatively disastrous as a battle-field, was a grand success to the North in other respects. It sobered, for a time at least, the hasty reckless spirits who believed that the South would not fight, and who were so unceasingly thorning the President to immediate decisive action.” – Cpl. John D. Billings, Hard […]
Sharing a hobby with your kids and grandkids is a time honored tradition practiced without shame by everyone from fly-fishermen to game hunters to ball players…the local park even has a few hipster dads teaching their sons how to walk slack lines, wear man-buns, and walk with an air of inexplicable smug superiority. Compared to […]
Ye Olyde School: Donald Featherstone’s War Games through the Ages Series
Wednesday , 4, November 2015 Wargames 5 CommentsVox recently called for contributors to a Wargame Wednesday feature which will tie in with an initiative in support of a new game release from Excalibre Games. Excalibre specializes in old school, turn based, cardboard counter games board games. Many of these games were well received and remind me of the old Avalon Hill classics. That […]
A reader calls for playtesters: About 6 playtesters needed to help us test an expanding card game for a July kickstarter. Format is a “build a deck from your collection of cards and play.” We’re looking for players go give us feedback on 1) how fun the game is, 2) how understandable the rules are, […]
First, I’d like to congratulate CH blogger Ken Burnside, for the success of his AVID Assistant Kickstarter campaign with 24 days to spare. Most game-related Kickstarters fail, so it’s nice to see one of our own completing one successfully. Thanks to all of the CH readers who supported it. Second, if you subscribe to the […]
Book Review: The Visualization of Quantitative Data
Wednesday , 25, February 2015 Book Review, Games, Tabletop Games, Wargames 2 CommentsREVIEW: The Visualization of Quantitative Data, 2nd Edition, Graphics Press, 2001 Edward R. Tufte, Author. People ask me, after I explain the layers of thought that went into the play aids I design, what kind of books I’d recommend. The first book is this one, by Edward R. Tufte. It concerns itself with the accurate display of statistical […]
Game Design: The Importance of User Experience & Interfaces
Wednesday , 18, February 2015 Games, Production, Tabletop Games, Uncategorized, Wargames Leave a commentRedmond Simonsen was an under-appreciated genius; he was cantankerous and was half of SPI when it founded, and one of the handful of people desperately trying to patch the financial holes when the iceberg of changing market conditions rent it asunder. Red worked as the marketing director, editor and in-house graphic designer for most of SPI’s […]
Game Design: The Part That Isn’t Fun
Wednesday , 11, February 2015 Games, Production, Promotions, Tabletop Games, Wargames 5 CommentsI get asked the game designer equivalent of “Wow, how do I get your job?” about twice a month, and more frequently during convention season. I usually end up trying to dissuade them. Writing games is a really bizarre form of technical writing. It’s somewhere on the Venn diagram of writing legal briefs, computer programming […]